Grace Bell Hardison, a 100-year-old Black woman and resident of Belhaven, North Carolina, lived through The Great Depression, Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement, and she witnessed the first Black president of the United States get elected into office twice. Hardison’s right to vote was challenged by Shane Hubers, a Belhaven Republican.
It’s legal in North Carolina for private citizens to formally challenge a voter’s eligibility prior to an election. Beginning in 2015, residents running for office in Belhaven mailed fliers to registered voters and then challenged the registrations of voters connected to any fliers that came back undelivered.
“Some time passed and we still had these letters and we just decided that we needed to clear up the Belhaven voting rolls,” Hubers, who filed 45 of the challenges, told WNCT.
